Two Thumbs Up For "Life Itself"

Life Itself (2014)

Documentary

Starring Roger Ebert, Chaz Ebert, Gene Siskel

Directed by Steve James

The Story:

Life Itself is the story of Pulitzer Prize winning movie critic Roger Ebert. Undoubtedly, anyone who has ever gone to a movie has at least seen the effect that Ebert and his partner Gene Siskel made on the movies: 2 thumbs up!

I shamelessly steal that tagline for the title of this review.

I probably now owe someone some money... : /

Anyway, growing up, I lived to see what movies were coming out, and what reviews Siskel and Ebert would give those films.

Sometimes they were right, sometimes they were wrong.

Sometimes they fought with each other.

Wait, who am I kidding, they ALWAYS fought with each other! :)

And that was the best part of the show.

Oil and water, they could go round and round, and you would swear the two hated each other.

After watching the documentary, that still may be true.

But there was respect there, grudgingly or not.

Anyway, this film started as a documentary to recount Ebert's life to that point, up to and including the surgeries to remove cancer from his body which robbed Ebert of his voice, but not his passion for writing.

His voice lived on through his keyboard and he still reviewed movies on his website up to the very end.

Which sadly, yet sweetly, this movie happened to be filmed at the right time, so to speak, and captured the passing of the legendary film critic.

Needless to say, this was a great documentary about a great life, lived fully.

No doubt, it's highly recommended.

Available to stream instantly on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade: A

The Balcony is Closed...Forever. R.I.P. Roger Ebert

Well, that sucks.

I come home today and see that news that Roger Ebert has passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Who knew that a film critic could garner such affection and sympathy from the American (dare I claim, world?) public?

Well, until the late 1970s, I doubt that was possible.

However, I was lucky enough to catch Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel when they started Sneak Previews on PBS in 1978.  My dad was a great fan of movies, and the apple didn't fall far from the tree.  We watched together or separately whenever it was on.  I probably enjoyed it more since they rarely reviewed Westerns. : )

Here were two movie critics that not only dissected whether movies were good or not in a manner of minutes, they often spent as much time (or more!) eviscerating each other over their opinions.

Yes, it was awesome.

In 1982 they left the confines of PBS and went syndicated with At the Movies.

I continued to watch as often as possible.

These two men were awesome.  Sometimes right, many times wrong, but always opinionated and I respected them for that.

These are the guys that lived my dream.

It's no small coincidence that I enjoy writing reviews.  While I could never hope to be a Siskel or Ebert, being a movie reviewer would be one of my dream gigs.

So I do it here in my own little corner of the internet to a few people who read my reviews, and I thank you for that.

Gene Siskel passed away in 1999, and the world was never quite the same, at least when it came to movie reviews.

Two Thumbs Up was forever embedded in the cultural vocabulary of the world.  One of those thumbs belonged to Gene, and could never be replaced.

Today we lost the other thumb, as Roger Ebert has passed on.

The great thing about the internet, Roger's reviews will live forever, as long as his website stays active at least.  Like the movies they reviewed, Siskel and Ebert became as much a part of popular culture as the films they praised and skewered.

There will never be another reviewer like either of them, and there most definitely will never be another duo that recreates the magic that they shared.

I thank them both for their careers.  They touched a lot of people over the years, and from my corner of the internet, I owe them both a great deal of gratitude for helping me enjoy movies, both as a fan, and as a critic.

As they used to sign off their show, until then, the balcony is closed.

R.I.P. Gentlemen.

You are both missed, and I'm hoping that the two of you are enjoying a heavenly reunion right about now...

I'm sure Siskel's got a lot of opinions to share with Roger!